PBB scraps celebrities for election

JAKARTA: Unlike other parties, the Crescent Star Party (PBB) will not nominate celebrities as legislative candidates in the upcoming general election, its chairman says.

PBB chairman Yusril Ihza Mahendra said recently the party would count on its own members during the elections.

He claimed his Muslim-based party had more than six million registered members.

Targeting Muslim voters, the party would maintain sharia as its platform.

"We expect to increase our members to 10 million before the general election next year," he said.

The party has set its sights of finishing among the top three in the upcoming polls, a rise from the sixth place it recorded in the 1999 election. -- JP